On November 18 2020, YouTube announced a troubling addition to their terms of service:
“Ads can now appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), and we will begin gradually placing ads on brand safe videos.” (Source)
Ads were once an optional feature only YouTube Partners could enable or disable at their discretion. To be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program, users had to acquire 4000 hours of watch time and 1000 YouTube subscribers. In 2021, partners will no longer have the option to control advertisements, and YouTube will place ads on all videos from every user.
The revenue generated from these ads will not be shared with content creators who are not part of the YouTube Partner Program:
“Because these channels are not in YPP, there is no creator revenue share.” (Source)
Brand Safe = Ban Safe
What makes this particularly troubling, however, is how YouTube could use the caveat “brand safe” to remove content creators that they disagree with from the platform:
“YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account’s access to all or part of the Service if YouTube reasonably believes that its provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable.” (Source)
YouTube is not known to be a company that champions free speech and has banned many Christian creators while simultaneously pushing content that is morally abhorrent.
Many content creators have chosen to disable advertisements on their videos to protect themselves from takedown notices for not being “brand-friendly”, or to prevent immoral products or services from being advertised on their videos.
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New YouTube Pay Wall?
Not only are ads displayed on your videos, YouTube may even put them behind a paywall that only YouTube premium users can access:
“You grant to YouTube the right to monetize your Content on the Service (and such monetization may include displaying ads on or within Content or charging users a fee for access). This Agreement does not entitle you to any payments.” (Source)
The Death Of YouTube?
YouTube has built a user base that expects free content with the occasional ad. These money-grabbing updates from a company that is already extremely profitable now threaten users’ ability to freely express themselves while robbing content creators of ad revenue. This will change the culture of the platform and could be the beginning of the end of YouTube.
As Jesus said, you can’t serve God and money (Matthew 6:24), and it seems YouTube is content with truth only if it can guarantee a financial return.
What other video hosting websites could Christians use? Let everyone know in the comments below.
